1557 Agostino Carracci (born), Italian painter (died 1602)
1650 Vincenzo Coronelli (born), Italian monk, cosmographer, and cartographer (died 1718)
1661 Thomas Fuller (died), English historian and author (born 1608)
1705 Jacob Bernoulli (died), Swiss mathematician (born 1654)
1733 Matthew Tindal (died), English author (born 1657)
1780 American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden – The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina.
1812 War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army.
1836 Marc-Antoine Parseval (died), French mathematician (born 1755)
1841 U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history.
1858 U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.
1888 John Pemberton (died), American chemist, invented Coca-Cola (born 1831)
1888 T. E. Lawrence (born), Welsh colonel (died 1935)
1892 Otto Messmer (born), American cartoonist and animator, co-created Felix the Cat (died 1983)
1893 Jean-Martin Charcot (died), French neurologist (born 1825)
1894 George Meany (born), American labor leader (died 1980)
1896 Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.
1911 E. F. Schumacher (born), German economist and statistician (died 1977)
1913 Completion of the Royal Navy battle cruiser HMS Queen Mary.
1913 Menachem Begin (born), Israeli politician, 6th Prime Minister of Israel, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1992)
1913 Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan (modern day Tohoku University) becomes the first university in Japan to admit female students.
1914 Carl Theodor Schulz (died), German-Norwegian gardener (born 1835)
1920 Charles Bukowski (born), German-American author and poet (died 1994)
1920 Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. Chapman was the second player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game, the first being Doc Powers in 1909.
1924 Fess Parker (born), American actor and singer (died 2010)
1927 The Dole Air Race begins from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, during which six out of the eight participating planes crash or disappear.
1930 Robert Culp (born), American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2010)
1930 The first color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, is made by Ub Iwerks.
1938 Robert Johnson (died), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1911)
1939 Billy Joe Shaver (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1942 World War II: The two-person crew of the U.S. naval blimp L-8 disappears without a trace on a routine anti-submarine patrol over the Pacific Ocean. The blimp drifts without her crew and crash-lands in Daly City, California.
1944 Kevin Ayers (born), English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Soft Machine) (died 2013)
1948 Babe Ruth (died), American baseball player (born 1895)
1949 Margaret Mitchell (died), American author (born 1900)
1951 Richard Hunt (born), American puppeteer and voice actor (died 1992)
1953 Kathie Lee Gifford (born), American talk show host, singer, and actress
1954 The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published.
1956 Bela Lugosi (died), Hungarian-American actor (born 1882)
1957 Irving Langmuir (died), American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1881)
1958 Madonna (born), American singer-songwriter, producer, actress, and director
1959 William Halsey, Jr. (died), American admiral (born 1882)
1960 Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
1960 Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,300 m), setting three records that held until 2012: High-altitude jump, free fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft.
1966 Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong. The committee intends to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested.
1969 Evar Saar (born), Estonian linguist, toponymist and journalist
1974 Punk Rock pioneers The Ramones play their first show in a local New York club named CBGB.
1977 Elvis Presley (died), American singer, guitarist, and actor (The Blue Moon Boys) (born 1935)
1989 A solar flare from the Sun creates a geomagnetic storm that affects micro chips, leading to a halt of all trading on Toronto’s stock market.
1989 Amanda Blake (died), American actress (born 1929)
1993 Stewart Granger (died), English-American actor (born 1913)
2003 Idi Amin (died), Ugandan field marshal and politician, 3rd President of Uganda (born 1928)
2007 Max Roach (died), American drummer and songwriter (M’Boom) (born 1924)
2008 The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is topped off at 1,389 feet (423 m), at the time becoming the world’s highest residence above ground-level.
2010 China overtakes Japan as world’s second-largest economy
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
- Patriotism - 4 July, 2017
- The Super Sucker Bowl - 10 February, 2017
- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017